Contractors are especially in demand due to the temporary nature of the work, according to Dan Sullivan, Executive Recruiter for J. Patrick & Associates. The firm places its contractors through Top Echelon® Contracting.

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. (PRWEB) January 21, 2013

As the use of videoconferencing increases, so does demand for professionals who can implement the technology.

New Paltz, NY-based recruiting firm J. Patrick & Associates, Inc., has noticed a spike in the number of placements it has made in the audio visual, videoconferencing, and collaboration arena. In fact, the firm´s Executive Recruiter, Dan Sullivan, estimates that the firm´s placements in that industry have increased by 15% in the past year.

“I´ve been doing this for 25 years. Over the years, I´ve found that the ℠canary in the coal mine´ that lets you know what´s going on in the job market is project managers,” Sullivan said. “When project managers are in demand and hard to find, something is going on. And project managers are definitely in demand in this area.”

As technology gets more advanced and videoconferencing is becoming more accessible — it´s now available on smartphones and gaming consoles — people are becoming more comfortable with it. The decreasing cost of bandwidth and storage is also making videoconferencing more feasible for companies, Sullivan said. Therefore, he is seeing an increase in the number of companies implementing videoconferencing solutions.

“Some companies don´t need a lot of help deploying because it is browser-based, but companies with more complex systems do,” Sullivan said. “Corporate level systems are more robust because they have to interact with other systems.”

These corporations need project managers to implement the technology, but they often don´t need them once the system is up and running. That´s why a large number of these project managers are being brought on as contractors, Sullivan said. The companies can get the project implemented without permanently adding to their overhead. J. Patrick & Associates places its contractors through the back-office services Top Echelon Contracting.

“If companies aren’t selling stuff, they don´t need project managers sitting idle, so you start to see companies do a ℠try-before-you-buy´ contract staffing arrangement on projects,” Sullivan said. “Frankly, these guys prefer to be contractors. They can make more money, run their own business, and can expense a bunch of stuff.”

Established in 1991, J. Patrick & Associates, Inc. has specialized in Executive Search for the various Technology industries, primarily for Sales, Marketing and Technical personnel. Its clients include Technology Vendors, Systems Integrators, Distributors/Resellers, Service Providers and End User organizations. J. Patrick handles both permanent placement and temporary consulting assignments, on a contingency or retained basis.